inouye of hawaii, mary landrieu of louisiana, joseph lieberman of connecticut, john mccain of arizona, ben nelson of florida, ken salazar of colorado, olympia snowe of maybe and john warner of virginia. what they devised was a quite simple solution. they were grappling with the same question that confronts us now, what can justify a member of the united states senate voting to block consideration, in other words, to filibuster, a nominee to the judicial branch. and their idea, simple as it was, had tremendous power. they agreed they would oppose a judicial nominee only in, quote, extraordinary circumstances. that was the gist of the agreement, there were other features to it but their spirit and intent in this short phrase had profoundly meaningful impact. in fact, for the remainder of the bush presidency, there were no more filibusters on judicial nominees. and those senators with that short phrase accomplished a historic impact. what did they mean by it? as one of them said at the time, -- quote -- "ideological attacks are not an extraordinary circumstance. it would have to be a cha